1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to electro-optic devices such as liquid crystal devices and methods for fabricating the same. Furthermore, the invention relates to a technical field of electronic apparatuses such as liquid crystal projectors provided with the electro-optic devices.
2. Related Art
One type of electro-optic device is an electro-optic device provided with pixel electrodes, scanning lines for selectively driving the pixel electrodes, data lines, and thin film transistors (TFTs) serving as pixel-switching elements on a substrate, and these elements are arranged so that active-matrix driving can be performed. In addition, storage capacitors may be formed between the TFTs and the pixel electrodes for achieving high-contrast imaging. These components are formed on a substrate at a high density for improving the pixel opening ratio and miniaturizing the device (for example, see JP-A-200-1156652).
Thus, electro-optic devices have been required to achieve higher-quality display and to be further miniaturized and densified. Therefore, various measures in addition to the above-mentioned methods have been taken. For example, a light leakage current generated when light enters a semiconductor layer of a TFT decreases the display quality. In order to increase light resistance of an electro-optic device, a light-shielding layer is disposed along the circumference of the semiconductor layer. Furthermore, a larger storage capacitor is preferable. However, electro-optic devices are preferably designed not to decrease their pixel opening ratio.
In the above-mentioned technologies, with an increase in function or performance, a stacked structure on a substrate becomes highly complicated. Furthermore, this results in a highly complicated fabricating process and a decrease in fabricating yield. On the other hand, simplification of a stacked structure on a substrate and of a fabricating process may cause a capacitance of the storage capacitor to be insufficient and a decrease in the light-shielding property. This may cause technological problems such as a decrease in display quality.